Max Takes First Place in Long Jump!

Many of you know, Max followed his own set of rules, which often didn’t coincide with societal norms (or laws). Although we think the following story is pretty funny, we realize there was tremendous risk and disregard for rules in his actions and do not recommend that anyone mimic him.

One spring day Max dashed in the front door and raced upstairs to his room. “What are you doing here?” I asked. Max should have been at school. “No time to explain,” Max shouted. A minute later he bounded down the stairs adding, “There are wet clothes on the floor.” He ran out the door before I could ask why. Hmmm. Within the hour the phone rang. “This is Dean Bill from the high school. Max was involved in an incident. Could you come to my office? Now?” Max was slumped in a chair outside the dean’s office. “Hey, Mom.” “What’s up?” “I disrupted the physics boat races in the pool.” “That doesn’t sound like the kind of thing they’d call me in to talk over. What else?” “I jumped from the balcony into the pool. They’re pressing charges. The police arrested me in study hall. They wouldn’t have caught me except my hair was still wet.” He shrugged. “I almost had them. They couldn’t figure out why my clothes were dry.” Max was right about the school pressing charges. We went to court; he paid a fine, served an out-of-school suspension, and washed fire trucks for community service. But he’d set a record for the long jump from the pool’s balcony, taken a bow to his cheering classmates upon exiting the pool, and served his punishment like a man. The next year, Max spent the day of the boat races “in the dungeon with a troll” to ensure there wouldn’t be a repeat performance. At least from Max. Turns out his little brother had some spring, too. Wish we had pictures.